EMPOWERING 21 ST CENTURY TECHNOLOGY, WITH A 19 TH CENTURY TECHNOLOGY LESSON. Bruce Blitch, CIO, Tessenderlo Kerley Inc.

Transcription

1 1 EMPOWERING 21 ST CENTURY TECHNOLOGY, WITH A 19 TH CENTURY TECHNOLOGY LESSON. Bruce Blitch, CIO, Tessenderlo Kerley Inc.

2 2 CHANGE I put a dollar in one of those change machines... Nothing changed. - George Carlin

3 3 CHANGE It is not necessary to change... Survival is not mandatory. - W. Edwards Deming

4 4 EMPOWERING 21 ST CENTURY TECHNOLOGY, WITH A 19 TH CENTURY TECHNOLOGY LESSON. Alternate Title: Technology change was a problem before the Internet, so now that its cancelled, we ll still have problems. Alternate Title: Everything I know about inefficiency, I learned from Bees the 19 th century railroad industry. Alternate Title: Treating 21 st Century Lessions (sic) with 19 th Century Technology. Alternate Title: Randy Beard offered me his Tie, but I don t wear clip-ons. Bruce Blitch, CIO, Tessenderlo Kerley Inc.

5 5 in no va tion in no va tion - noun - The introduction of a new thing, or method.

6 6 me thod me thod - noun - A particular process for accomplishing something, especially a systematic one.

7 19 th century technology The true story of Mr. Ben J. Tarbutton In the 1890 s a small Georgia town built a three mile rail-link to a neighboring town s main-line railroad. 7 Mr. Ben J. Tarbutton was named President, and soon the little railroad was very successful. As President, he eagerly wrote the president of the big Pennsylvania Railroad to exchange rail passes, a common practice among railroad officials in that day. The Northerner refused, noting acidly that the Pennsylvania had thousands of miles of track connecting major cities while Mr. Tarbutton s track was only three miles long. It is true that my railroad may not be as long as yours, Tarbutton is said to have replied, but it, sir, is just as wide. Nesmith, Achsah. Long, Arduous March Toward Standardization, Reprinted from Smithsonian Magazine with Permission, 1985.

8 8 21st century technology The innovation of things. Smartphones In 1946 the world s first generalpurpose electronic computer performed 5,000 instructions per second. In 1975, the Cray-1 supercomputer performed 800 million instructions per second Today, the modern smartphone in your pocket could be capable of 2,000 million instructions per second.

9 9 21st century technology The innovation of things. Data Transmission The 1939 record for Morse code was equivalent to ⅓ of a page per minute. Today, a 4G network can transfer the equivalent of over 360,000 pages per second.

10 10 21st century mobile technology The innovation of things. High Density Barcodes There is no historic equivalent to the modern barcode, except the written page. Modern barcodes can encode many hundreds of characters in the space of a large postage stamp.

11 11 21st century mobile technology Where is the innovation for Agriculture? Category Count Agriculture Utilities 66 Farm Games +/- 750 Story Apple iphone itunes Store

12 12 21st century technology Where is the innovation, period? Why Aren't Smartphones Making Us More Productive? Even as an estimated 130 million smartphones roam the U.S. streets, economists can't quite find them. Classically defined, an increase in productivity either reduces labor, improves output, or both. And by that measure, argues Northwestern University economist Robert J. Gordon, the [smartphone] "has done absolutely nothing" to improve productivity. * Android BlackBerry Windows Phone Apple iphone * Why Aren't Smartphones Making Us More Productive? U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, May 1, 2013, Page B1

13 13 19 th century technology Why was just as wide so important? One of the first railroads in the country, the South Carolina, had 136 miles of track by 1833, making it the longest railroad in the world. It was built to a 5-foot gauge, and railroad builders all over the South followed suit. ** American railroads were planned with little thought that [they] would eventually meet. From the 1830s through the 1850s, the number of gauges proliferated. By 1861, over 7,000 miles of track with [a 5- foot ] gauge had been laid throughout the South. The Ohio legislature [chose a] 4-foot-10-inch gauge. California chose 5 feet, Missouri and Texas chose 6 feet. By the 1870s, there were over twenty different gauges in use in America. * * Standardization of American Rail Gauge ** A long, arduous march toward standardization. Smithsonian, March 01, 1985, Nesmith, Achsah

14 14 19 th century technology Why wasn t this problem addressed? [T]he first serious efforts to bring uniformity to rail gauges in 1853 resulted in bloody riots. where three different widths of railroad met, hundreds of jobs [had been] created by the need to load and unload all the arriving cars in order to change their wheels. With so much well-paid work to lose, city officials refused to grant the railroads the right to close streets and bridges while the track-width changes were made, and the [state] governor backed them. Families, and even church congregations, split over the issue. At one point, a mob of women took sledgehammers and were tearing up the various tracks until federal marshals moved in. * * A long, arduous march toward standardization. Smithsonian, March 01, 1985, Nesmith, Achsah

15 21st century mobile technology What efficiencies are possible? A logistics scenario Value Point #2: Single interface and standard data format. Confirm current details, avoid mistakes. Notify customer of service. ANY Warehouse Service Providers 15 Value Point #1: Single interface and standard data format. Confirm current details, avoid mistakes. Notify customer of service. ANY Transportation Buyer & Seller Systems Value Point #4: Industry standard message. Single delivery endpoint. Value Point #3: Industry standard barcode and data format. Universal readability. Standard Format Value Point #5: Standard, non-proprietary, message collection and distribution architecture. Near realtime data collection. Standard Format Standard Format

16 16 21st century mobile technology What enhaced efficiencies are possible? Logistics??? Surveys Application Inspections Consulting Equipment Servicing Permitting

17 17 21st century mobile technology What are the enablers for this scenario? Methods, not Things. We don t need MORE intermediaries in these data flows, we need fewer. Adherence to Standards is the price we pay for this inter-operability. Standards are being aligned across entire industries everyday. (Telephones anyone?)?

18 19 th century technology How then did just as wide come to be? The fact that Mr. Tarbutton s railroad was just as wide as the Pennsylvania came about by an incredible event of mass standardization. During two spring days in 1886, the rails were moved on more than 11,000 miles of track from Virginia to Florida to Texas. When the great shift was over, trains could travel from the South to the North or the West without [the] changing of wheels at connecting points that had gone on before. 18 By Wednesday morning, June 2, 1886, the South's rails at last matched the gauge used by the mighty Pennsylvania. *, and Mr. Tarbutton could make his statement. ** A long, arduous march toward standardization. Smithsonian, March 01, 1985, Nesmith, Achsah

19 19 The 19 th century technology lesson? Or, the lessons of just as wide Think & plan beyond current boundaries. Don t let the long-term interconnection opportunity be obscured by the short-term appeal of the technology. Entrenched interests can impede progress. The longer the delay, the greater the cost & effort involved in standardization. In innovation, oftentimes the methods ultimately prove more important to empowerment than the things.

20 20 How to empower 21 st century technology? Embrace standardization for the value it brings to the entire chain, not just to your company. This is not altruism, its just a good, long-term, business strategy. Insist that application vendors support industry standards. Solution providers need to realize that the value isn t generated by an oxymoronic attempt to implement proprietary methods ( standards ), but rather from the innovation of things, enabled by those standards.

21 21 How to empower 21 st century technology? Make all our industry information conduits just as wide by supporting standardization. Learn the lessons of the past

22 Empowering 21st century technology, with a 19th century technology lesson. 22 Just as wide? Thank you!